Coast Guard searching off Texas after fishing boat distress call

May 21, 2012|Reuters

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO, May 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard wassearching off the Texas coast on Monday for six people fearedmissing a day after a distress call indicated a fishing boat mayhave been sinking in the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, theCoast Guard said.

A caller radioed on an emergency frequency on Sundayafternoon that the boat was sinking and that he and five otherpeople on board were climbing into a life raft, said ElvieDamaso, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard.

U.S. Coast Guard planes and cutters were scouring the watersnear Galveston, she said.

"It is an extensive search with a lot of assets," she said.

She said the vessel went by the name of either Scallywag orSkylark, though the Coast Guard has not been able to findrecords of any boats by those names that were due to return andhave not.

The radio transmission indicated the boat was sinking 2.2miles (3.5 km) from the entrance to the Houston Ship Channel,Damaso said. She said there was a possibility the distress callwas a prank but that "we are not treating it as such."

By midday on Monday, there had been no sign either of theship or a life raft. Damaso said she had no information on theage or gender of the missing people.